The "Loose Sand" (China)
This Chinese doctor and leader believed the country needed a strong "Shield" of Nationalism to survive the carving knife.
Sun Yat-sen
Developed by Gandhi, this is the deliberate, public, and non-violent refusal to obey an unjust law in order to undermine an empire’s authority.
Taken in 1937 after a Japanese bombing of a Shanghai railway station, this famous and heartbreaking photograph of a crying, burned baby became a global symbol of the "Total War" being waged against civilians.
Bloody Saturday
Sun Yat-sen called this the "Water" that would bind the "loose sand" of China together; it is the belief that people who share a common language and culture should have their own independent nation.
This is the minimum amount of time you are required to speak for each of the two questions.
2 minutes
Mao Zedong argued that the "Torch" of revolution wouldn't be lit by city workers, but by this massive group of rural people.
Peasants
In 1930, Gandhi led a 250-mile journey to the sea to openly violate the British monopoly on an essential everyday item, proving that millions of people could break the law together without using violence.
The Salt March
When Japan invaded French Indochina to seize resources, the United States launched an oil embargo to protect this specific Pacific island nation, which was an American territory directly in the path of Japan’s "Push South."
The Philippines
Japan used this tool—including catchy slogans like "Asia for the Asiatics"—to spread biased or misleading information designed to hide their violent imperial goals.
Propaganda
This is the total number of points you can earn for the entire oral exam on Friday.
200
Mao Zedong used this brutal 6,000-mile strategic retreat to survive Nationalist attacks and build the legend of the Red Army.
The Long March
Passed in 1919, these emergency laws allowed the British government in India to jail protesters without a trial for up to two years, sparking nationwide outrage.
The Rowlatt Acts
To hide their imperial expansion, Japan used this catchy propaganda slogan to claim they were actually liberating their neighbors from white European empires.
Asia for the Asiatics
In our "Coke and Mentos" metaphor, if the "Mentos" were the Rowlatt Acts and the Salt Tax, this two-word term describes the unstable, explosive state of India, ready to erupt in 1919.
Powder Keg
This rubric category is worth 30 points and requires you to naturally mention at least three specific historical facts (names, dates, or events).
Receipts/Evidence
China sent 140,000 laborers to help the Allies in WWI, expecting this peninsula back from Germany, but it was given to Japan instead.
Shangdong Peninsula
This massive 1857 mutiny changed everything, causing the British government to take direct control of India away from the East India Company.
Sepoy Rebellion
In 1931, Japanese soldiers staged a fake "attack" on their own railway as an excuse to invade and seize this resource-rich region of Northern China.
The Manchurian Incident
This term refers to the "shades of gray" in history—it is the ability to look past simple "good vs. bad" labels to understand the complex motives and contradictions of people like George Washington or Gandhi.
Historical Nuance
This is forbidden on your index card
Full Sentences
In 1937, the Nationalists and Communists realized they had to pause their civil war to fight off the Japanese, forming this alliance.
The United Front
After riots broke out in 1919, the British government declared this type of rule, which suspends ordinary laws and places the military in total control of a city or region.
The Armritsar Massacre
After investigating the invasion of Manchuria, the League of Nations issued this official document which called Japan the aggressor and led to Japan quitting the League forever.
The Lytton Report
This is the economic goal of a country that wants to be completely self-sufficient and not rely on trade with others; it was the main reason Japan invaded Manchuria and Southeast Asia for resources.
Autarky
Fill in the blank: "After feeling betrayed by the _________ that ended World War I, how did the people of India and China try to unite their countries and fight back against foreign empires?"
Treaties